Huh asks exiles to solve club v country row

SEOUL - South Korea coach Huh Jung-moo has sidestepped a showdown with local K-League sides by naming a squad of foreign exiles for their friendly against Australia next month in Seoul.

Published

25 August 2009

A club v country row had been brewing since the Korean Football Association arranged the September 5 friendly against fellow 2010 World Cup qualifiers Australia.

The K-League has fixtures scheduled for the following day and refused to release its players to the national side.

The crisis was averted, however, when the KFA announced Huh's 15-man squad of foreign exiles, while the K-League also compromised by agreeing to release some players on the understanding the coach uses as few as possible.

Several members of the squad that reached the 2002 World Cup semi-finals on home soil returned after a long absence including Ahn Jung-hwan, Kim Nam-il and Cha Du-ri, according the Asian Football Confederation website.Players based in Europe featured heavily in the squad including Manchester United's Park Ji-sung, Wigan's Cho Won-hee, Seol Ki-hyeon of Fulham and Bolton's new signing Lee Chung-yong.

Get FourFourTwo interviews, features and fun in your inbox every week. For free!

Thank you for registering for our Newsletter

We will send regular updates on the ongoing FourFourTwo updates to the email address you have supplied.